


Until That Day, You Be Well

by Happy_Ocelot



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29606274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happy_Ocelot/pseuds/Happy_Ocelot
Summary: Kurama, and the millennium he had to wait for a certain blue-eyed youth. Spoilers for Boruto chapter 55.
Relationships: Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Ootsutsuki Hagoromo, Kyuubi | Nine-tails | Kurama & Uzumaki Naruto
Kudos: 24





	Until That Day, You Be Well

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry. I was feeling really sad that Kurama died in Boruto chapter 55, so I had to write this. I'll get back to humor/crack soon enough...but KURAMA, WHY?
> 
> Ahem. Anyway, this is my tribute to him. And if anyone is wondering what a tenko is: it's said that, after becoming a thousand years old and gaining its ninth tail, a kitsune turns golden and becomes a tenko (heavenly fox), the most powerful form it can take. As you can see, this really applies to Kurama when you think about it.
> 
> So...review please? :)

_"I don't have long any more. Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuuki, Kurama. Even though you have been separated, you shall always be together. Until eventually that time shall come when you will become one… You each carry a name… And with a different shape than you had up to now, you will be shown a righteous path, different from the time you spent inside of me. What is true power… …Until that time…_ "

* * *

"Jiji, jiji, will you play with me today?" asked the little fox kit, perking up his ears in eagerness.

The old man smiled tiredly. He stroked Kurama's ears, which were already larger than his own body. The little one nuzzled the Sage affectionately. "Ah, child, perhaps you could ask one of your siblings? Forgive me, but my knees are quite painful today."

Kurama pouted. "You said that yesterday, and the day before that too." He flopped onto the grass and stared at the deep blue sky, all nine tails sprawling out and taking up a massive amount of space. "And Shukaku 'n' me always keep fighting, and Isobu is so slow..."

"Have patience, young one," the Sage of Six Paths said kindly. "And do try not to fight with them. Connect your hearts together."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever, jiji," said Kurama. "But I'm boooored right now, and they're all off somewhere else. I wanna play."

"I am not nearly as youthful as you are, Kurama. Please forgive this old man. But perhaps I can entertain you with a story?" Hagoromo asked.

"What kind of story?" asked the fox kit. "Is it that one where you and your little brother fought your mother? That was really cool."

"Hmmm, let us retread that tale another day." Hagoromo stared across the beautiful flowery meadow thoughtfully. "Shall I tell you the story of your birth?"

"Okay!"

The Sage stroked his beard, lost in memories. "In this world, there are two principles that animate everything, the source of all creation."

"Yeah?" Kurama asked.

"Yin and Yang, dark and bright, passive and active. My Yin Release is my spiritual energy. My Yang Release is my physical energy. And when I combined the two, I created you and your siblings, young one."

Kurama's bushy tails thumped on the ground. "I don't get it," he said hesitantly.

Hagoromo sighed. "Very well. I shall explain it in different words. I dreamed up your form in my mind, imagining you just as you are now, you and your nine tails, child. And then I brought your form to reality. I created you and the others from nothingness."

"So...so..." Kurama's red eyes shone in sudden understanding. "That means we're your dream come true, jiji!"

The Sage burst out laughing at Kurama's innocence and childish phrasing of the truth. "Indeed. You...are my dream come true, Kurama."

A peaceful, content silence pervaded the air. It was just Kurama and the Rikudou Sennin, together under the beautiful sky and the soothing breeze.

"But jiji..." Kurama whined again after a few minutes had passed. "I'm still bored."

"Fear not," said the Sage. "You will find a suitable friend sooner or later."

"How can you be so sure, jiji?"

"I met a toad the other day, Gamamaru."

Kurama wrinkled his nose. "Toads are so gross. Don't tell me that he's supposed to be my friend."

"No, no." Hagoromo stared up at the blue, blue sky. "He told me that one day, there will be a young man with blue eyes."

"Blue eyes?"

"Yes," said Hagoromo. "As blue as the sky on this summer day. One day, you'll cross paths with him, and you'll have someone to play with."

"Are you really sure about that, jiji?" asked Kurama.

"Of course." Hagoromo smiled gently.

"But what if this blue-eyed guy takes forever to show up?" Kurama persisted. "What if I have to...like...wait a thousand years or something? By that time, I'd have golden fur and become a tenko."

Hagoromo patted Kurama's snout. "Have patience, young one. Until that day, you be well, Kurama."

* * *

The old man passed away not long after that. He was already tired and weak when he had dreamed his dream, and his strength deteriorated even further when he used the Juubi chakra in his body to create the bijuu.

Kurama waited and waited.

He bounded across the world, looking in rivers and forests, in lakes and caves, looking for any humans to befriend, anyone at all.

There were plenty of blue-eyed humans in the world. None of them wanted to be his friend.

_Have patience, young one._

Kurama could sense their anger and hatred, their suffering and sadness. Jiji had said that Kurama had this power so that he could understand the pain of others, so that he could connect with their hearts.

It didn't work.

"Monster fox!" shouted one of them, about two hundred years after the Sage's passing.

Another one shook with tremors four hundred years later. "It's...it's the demon. It's divine punishment from heaven..." he whispered, terrified, to the ones beside him.

None of them wanted to be his friend, and none of them wanted to be each other's friend.

It had been five hundred years after the Sage had left the world, and all humans did was fight each other.

Kurama remembered Hagoromo's words from back then: _"Connect your hearts together."_

He wondered what jiji would think if he saw it all now.

_Have patience, young one._

Nine hundred years after the passing of the Rikudou Sennin, and the humans stopped fighting, at least for a time. Instead, they established something called "hidden villages," so that no more children had to die for wars created by adults.

But even that came to an abrupt halt. Kurama could still feel all the anger and hatred in the air. The leader of one of the hidden villages had a falling out with his friend.

To get his revenge on that leader – the Hokage – this friend had come to Kurama.

 _To make him obey_ , because he was apparently just a stupid animal, only fit to be guided by the Uchiha.

It had been over nine hundred years after the Sage's death, and humans had long since stopped calling him Kurama.

He was just the Kyuubi.

* * *

He went through decades sleeping in the belly of the Hokage's wife, Uzumaki Mito.

She too said the same thing as Uchiha Madara, just in different words.

_"When you use your powers, only hate comes from it. Stay tranquil deep inside me."_

And then she was about to die, and her successor, Uzumaki Kushina, said the same thing as her.

_"You're here to keep the world in check, but I'm here to keep you in check."_

By the time he was on his third jinchuuriki, a mere child, Kurama could no longer tell if the anger and hatred was in the air, or if it was just inside him.

_Have patience, young one._

The child had blue eyes.

Kurama didn't care anymore.

He had run out of patience.

* * *

Still, it was amusing to watch the child grow up. The adults all hated the boy as much as they hated him – _because_ they hated him.

Uzumaki Naruto truly was a vessel for the hatred of the world.

They didn't want to connect with his heart, and to Kurama's endless enjoyment, he didn't seem to get it.

No. Uzumaki Naruto just kept trying and trying to connect with them.

He kept failing.

He was too stupid to give up trying, unlike Kurama.

Until one day, by some bizarre fluke, he _did_ end up connecting with someone's heart.

It was his schoolteacher, Iruka, a man who had spent many years scolding and yelling at Naruto for his foolish antics in the classroom.

But somehow, one night, Iruka had understood the pain in Naruto's heart, and they had connected.

 _It's just an odd coincidence,_ Kurama scoffed. _And besides, jiji never scolded_ me.

* * *

It wasn't an odd coincidence. Somehow, someday, Uzumaki Naruto had stopped failing.

The number of humans he'd connected with kept swelling.

First Iruka, then some people who were now his "teammates and sensei," and then other people's teams and sensei, and then people from other villages, people from around the world.

He'd understood their pain and he connected with them. And which each passing day, his eyes seemed bluer and bluer, close to the color of the sky.

 _Ridiculous,_ Kurama said to himself. _Jiji was wrong about it all. There's nothing special about this kid._

For a time, Kurama seemed to be right. Naruto did fail to connect with the pain in his teammate Sasuke's heart, to Kurama's sadistic glee.

That was the same day that Naruto had made maximum use of Kurama's power, up to date.

But...but Naruto _still_ refused to give up, a fact that occasionally made Kurama growl in irritation. " _What is wrong with you?"_ he wanted to yell at Naruto – only the seal prevented him from doing so more frequently.

And his eyes were still blue.

Sometimes, while Kurama was deep in sleep, trapped in the accursed cage in the boy's mind, he could see a beautiful flowery meadow and hear the Rikudou Sennin's voice.

_Have patience, young one. Until that day..._

And though he kept failing and failing with Sasuke, Naruto kept succeeding and succeeding with everyone else. A day had come when a man named Pain attacked the village of Konoha, searching for Naruto. The same villagers who had whispered about the _"demon fox"_ when Naruto wasn't looking, suddenly, by some bizarre fluke, did not give up his location to him. And then another girl, one whom Naruto had connected with long ago, had rushed to his defense.

She had almost died.

That was the moment when Kurama almost broke free.

He _would_ have broken free, if not for the Yondaime appearing and fixing the damn seal that was caging him in.

Naruto had defeated Pain that day and connected with his heart. That was the day when Naruto had finally connected with the villagers' hearts.

Kurama tried to sleep, but to his frustration, it would not come. The kind eyes of the Rikudou Sennin danced in the forefront of his mind.

_Have patience, young one. Until that day..._

Until _what_ day? Kurama had forgotten the last part of his sentence many centuries ago.

_You'll cross paths with..._

Kurama banished the thoughts and memories of that bygone era from his mind, and stared out into the world around him.

It looked like there would be a _war_.

Humans never did anything but fight each other. But for whatever reason, this time, they were fighting together.

* * *

"You know what, Kyuubi?" Naruto asked. The impudent young man grinned at him. "I'll come after all that hate inside you one day, too!"

_Ridiculous._

That was what he tried to tell himself as the boy tried to free Son Goku from the restraints that the masked man had placed on him.

"Don't call me Yonbi!" the monkey snapped. "I have a proper name."

_Humans never did anything but fight._

_And they never referred to me as anything other than Kyuubi, either_ , he'd thought.

Naruto was just an idiot who didn't know when to quit. Humans could not connect with each other, much less with a bijuu.

Naruto smiled that foolish, foolish smile and smashed all of Kurama's expectations to little pieces.

"Son!"

And human and bijuu finally connected.

Kurama's eyes widened in surprise.

He'd finally remembered.

_Fear not. You will find a suitable friend sooner or later._

_One day, there will be a young man with blue eyes._

_As blue as the sky on this summer day._

_One day, you'll cross paths with him, and you'll have someone to play with._

_But what if I have to...like...wait a thousand years or something? By that time, I'd have golden fur and become a tenko._

_Have patience, young one. Until that day..._

Well, it really _did_ take a thousand years after all.

Kurama should have been more patient.

But as he bumped fists with Naruto, whose eyes were as blue as the sky on a summer day, he'd finally gotten golden fur and become a tenko.

He was no longer just the Kyuubi.

Kurama was well.

* * *

The war ended and Naruto had finally connected with Sasuke, with him, with...everyone. Yes, everyone. Kurama had shared his chakra with everyone in the ninja army. He'd connected with their hearts, just as jiji would have wanted.

The years after the war were as peaceful as that day he'd spent with jiji in that beautiful flowery meadow, a thousand years ago.

Kurama's dozing was periodically interrupted by the shrieks of children playing happily for many years. By now, he was old enough to understand why jiji was too tired to play with him. But it was fun to watch Naruto's kids playing with each other, rather like how he wished to have played with Shukaku, if he wasn't so stupid, or Isobu, if he wasn't so slow.

It was only fitting that his final days were spent in peace, after years and years of searching.

* * *

A new threat had appeared in the world, in the form of one of those Otsutsuki who were from the same clan as jiji. Except for the family name, they had nothing in common with jiji. No kindness, no gentleness, no sweetness, and no wisdom; just greed and unbridled thirst for power. So it was with no trouble at all that Kurama decided to go all out to take them down.

His connections with Naruto and the others were too precious for these Otsutsuki to gobble up like fruit from a tree. He didn't tell Naruto about the price of his final form, though. Naruto was annoying. He wouldn't get it. Naruto found those connections to be too precious as well, too precious to give up.

But they would meet again, Kurama was sure of it. Their hearts were connected. He just had to remind Naruto of that.

"Until that day, you be well...Naruto."

The Yin Release and Yang Release that had knitted him together, which had given form to the Rikudou Sennin's imagination, were rapidly unraveling. The fox kit – now fully grown – had finally understood what the old man was trying to explain in complicated words, over a millennium ago.

Kurama smiled as he dissolved into the nothingness from which he came.


End file.
